


The People That Make Us Strong

by FaithWinchester



Series: Connections [2]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV), Supernatural
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-29
Updated: 2019-08-29
Packaged: 2020-09-29 19:42:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20441441
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FaithWinchester/pseuds/FaithWinchester
Summary: Giles is concerned about Faith, but she's five by five





	The People That Make Us Strong

**Author's Note:**

> As usual, I own nothing and I'm still broke.
> 
> Previously posted on Twisting the Hellmouth

~*~  
  
"Faith, you have to stop rushing headlong into danger," Giles said and Faith made a valiant effort not to roll her eyes. She failed, but luckily Giles didn't catch it. She'd gone back to Slayer headquarters in Cleveland to rest up and recharge after a particular nasty run-in with a nest of Polgara demons. One of them had managed to shove his skewer through her calf during the fight and even though it was mostly healed already, Giles had insisted on bandaging it when he'd realized she was injured. That done, they'd moved on to the lecturing. "Honestly, you're only one girl," he continued and she gave an unladylike snort.  
  
"Right, G man. One girl, as in, one girl in all the world, oh, but wait! There's like a couple hundred of us now, thanks to Red," she said, rocking her chair back on two legs. Giles huffed a bit, taking off his glasses and cleaning them with the ever present white handkerchief he kept in his pocket and Faith knew he was trying to decide how to say whatever it was he thought she needed to hear. She waited, only a little bit impatiently and managed to keep her mouth shut in the interim.  
  
Finally, Giles put his glasses back on and took a seat on the corner of his desk, giving her an even, level stare.  
  
"Faith, I know that things have been... complicated since you were called as a Slayer. However, I thought that after Sunnydale, after the battle with The First, the Rising of the Slayers, that we'd all moved past the problems that came before. That is, I'd hoped you would... settle down a bit, make some... well, make some close friends," he faltered and Faith gave him a lopsided grin.  
  
"Aw, Giles, are you getting all after-school-special on me?" she couldn't help but tease him. In truth, she was trying to get him to give up on the subject. It bothered Giles and Buffy that Faith had never settled in at Slayer Central, never really formed any close relationships with anyone. She was friendly, sure and a very far cry from the girl she'd been at 16, but she was still Faith and she still didn't want to talk about it.  
  
"Faith," Giles said and he was using his Watcher voice, that one that was a cross between a father and a high school principal. She sighed and nodded for him to continue with a murmured "sorry". "In the past, the Slayer was a lone girl, solitary, but we learned with Buffy and Willow and Xander and, well, everyone, how big of a mistake that was. It's the people we care about that make us strong, Faith. Who is that for you?"  
  
Faith blinked at him, wondering if he really wanted her to try and answer that or if it was one of those rhetorical questions and then, inexplicably, she realized she had an answer. As soon as she thought his name, she could see him in her mind.  
  
Disheveled dirty blond hair, green eyes that seemed both intense and mellow at the same time. A mouth made for keeping a girl awake at night and a body that made sure she'd enjoy it. Dean had almost as many scars as she did and on a rainy Saturday night in Gainesville, Florida, he'd told her where they'd come from. She was pretty sure he was breaking the rules, telling her about hunters, but that was okay, because she knew she was throwing the rule book out the window when she told him about Slayers.  
  
Maybe she should have told Giles about the hunters, the network of humans out there doing the Slayer's job, but she didn't. She didn't even tell Dawn, the only close friend she really had, about the green eyed man who hunted ghosts with a shotgun full of rock salt. Every now and then, she'd call him, or he'd call her and when they could, they'd meet up in the middle of nowhere and make some magic. When they couldn't, they'd talk, sometimes for just a few minutes, sometimes for hours. Looking back, she wasn't sure she could even say what they talked about, but as long as she could hear that voice on the line, it didn't seem to matter.  
  
Giles wanted to know if she had a connection to someone, if there was anyone she cared about, that made her want to keep living, keep fighting. She did, but Faith wasn't ready to share him, not yet. So she gave the only answer she could.  
  
"Don't worry, G man. I got it covered."  
  
~*~


End file.
